Is Chevron consolidating brands?

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pseudo3d
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by pseudo3d »

Texaco nearly disappeared from my neck of the woods about 15 years (I guess 17 years at this point) ago when the ChevronTexaco merger actually caused Shell to have exclusive rights to the brand for three years. Since then, most of the "modern" Texacos were converted from other brands. In my town, all the "original" Texaco stations became Shell stations (though a bunch of them were pretty old and many of them have closed or flipped brands again), but three Circle K stores (sold in the late 1990s) became Conoco for a while then Diamond Shamrock stores, then split ways. Of the three stores, one is still a Texaco (at last count), one became a Chevron this year (a Circle K "Truxtop" and eventually became Speedy Stop, now a TETCO--basically an unbranded 7-Eleven), and one became a Valero a few years ago.
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by BillyGr »

pseudo3d wrote: December 30th, 2019, 7:41 pm Texaco nearly disappeared from my neck of the woods about 15 years (I guess 17 years at this point) ago when the ChevronTexaco merger actually caused Shell to have exclusive rights to the brand for three years. Since then, most of the "modern" Texacos were converted from other brands. In my town, all the "original" Texaco stations became Shell stations (though a bunch of them were pretty old and many of them have closed or flipped brands again), but three Circle K stores (sold in the late 1990s) became Conoco for a while then Diamond Shamrock stores, then split ways. Of the three stores, one is still a Texaco (at last count), one became a Chevron this year (a Circle K "Truxtop" and eventually became Speedy Stop, now a TETCO--basically an unbranded 7-Eleven), and one became a Valero a few years ago.
The same occurred "locally" (western parts of VT & MA, since much of eastern NY hasn't had either brand for many years), where all the existing Texaco stations were converted to Shell branding.

Having not been to those areas that much in the recent past, I don't know if any new Texaco stations have reappeared.
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote: December 30th, 2019, 7:41 pm Texaco nearly disappeared from my neck of the woods about 15 years (I guess 17 years at this point) ago when the ChevronTexaco merger actually caused Shell to have exclusive rights to the brand for three years. Since then, most of the "modern" Texacos were converted from other brands. In my town, all the "original" Texaco stations became Shell stations (though a bunch of them were pretty old and many of them have closed or flipped brands again), but three Circle K stores (sold in the late 1990s) became Conoco for a while then Diamond Shamrock stores, then split ways. Of the three stores, one is still a Texaco (at last count), one became a Chevron this year (a Circle K "Truxtop" and eventually became Speedy Stop, now a TETCO--basically an unbranded 7-Eleven), and one became a Valero a few years ago.
Shell didn't have exclusive access, a company called Motiva did. Motiva was marketing as Texaco, who was part owner of the company, but after the merger, began converting all of their stores to Shell, as they sold the Texaco shares to Shell by that point once the merger happened.

While Shell was a step up from Texaco, it also caused many bargain stations to move a bit upscale, and then to lose business since folks don't want to pay Shell pricing. The only thing that has helped is FuelRewards, but you almost have to exclusively purchase gas there to match other station pricing.

We have a handful of 'newer' Texaco stations that have either converted from another brand or are owned by the Chevron distributor, as I mentioned above.
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by pseudo3d »

wnetmacman wrote: January 9th, 2020, 8:30 am
pseudo3d wrote: December 30th, 2019, 7:41 pm Texaco nearly disappeared from my neck of the woods about 15 years (I guess 17 years at this point) ago when the ChevronTexaco merger actually caused Shell to have exclusive rights to the brand for three years. Since then, most of the "modern" Texacos were converted from other brands. In my town, all the "original" Texaco stations became Shell stations (though a bunch of them were pretty old and many of them have closed or flipped brands again), but three Circle K stores (sold in the late 1990s) became Conoco for a while then Diamond Shamrock stores, then split ways. Of the three stores, one is still a Texaco (at last count), one became a Chevron this year (a Circle K "Truxtop" and eventually became Speedy Stop, now a TETCO--basically an unbranded 7-Eleven), and one became a Valero a few years ago.
Shell didn't have exclusive access, a company called Motiva did. Motiva was marketing as Texaco, who was part owner of the company, but after the merger, began converting all of their stores to Shell, as they sold the Texaco shares to Shell by that point once the merger happened.

While Shell was a step up from Texaco, it also caused many bargain stations to move a bit upscale, and then to lose business since folks don't want to pay Shell pricing. The only thing that has helped is FuelRewards, but you almost have to exclusively purchase gas there to match other station pricing.

We have a handful of 'newer' Texaco stations that have either converted from another brand or are owned by the Chevron distributor, as I mentioned above.
I never saw Shell as particularly more upscale before the merger. Only Texaco had been building new, modern stores (a few opened as Shell entirely), with the other Shell stations in town old outlets from the early 1980s (only a few made upgrades and fewer exist today). I'm also pretty sure a few Texaco stores did survive during that time...in Houston at the corner of TC Jester and Katy Freeway, there's a Texaco, which was a Texaco in the late 1990s because you can actually see the sign in the film Rushmore...and I'm pretty sure it didn't flip back to Texaco after being a Shell.
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by wnetmacman »

pseudo3d wrote: I'm also pretty sure a few Texaco stores did survive during that time...in Houston at the corner of TC Jester and Katy Freeway, there's a Texaco, which was a Texaco in the late 1990s because you can actually see the sign in the film Rushmore...and I'm pretty sure it didn't flip back to Texaco after being a Shell.
Motiva didn't have truly exclusive rights to Texaco. Many old line stations that were true to brand had it as well. Those are the typical survivors. Most of the new stations, like I said above, are just because the local Chevron distributor has another station nearby.
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by trainman »

Brian Lutz wrote: December 30th, 2019, 12:45 pm In general, around here the Texaco brand seems to be used only when there's another Chevron fairly close by, and for some reason also seems to often be used on stations with full service car washes.
I know of one intersection in Los Angeles (Beverly & La Brea) where there are Chevrons diagonally across from each other. I guess they've figured that the Texaco name is not well-known enough in Southern California to apply it to one of those stations.
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by Super S »

Something that gives a mixed signal is that the Chevron logo has apparently replaced the Texaco logo on Havoline products:
https://www.chevronlubricants.com/en_us ... oline.html
Now it makes some sense as to why Havoline as a brand has practically disappeared in my area as there is a lot of duplication with Chevron marketing their own brand of lubricants.
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by storewanderer »

Another strange thing that happened was Chevron divested its Hawaii refinery and corporate operated stations in Hawaii. All were Chevron and Chevron had a long history in Hawaii.

As part of the sale, all of the stations in Hawaii got rebranded to Texaco. Why? I have no idea.
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Re: Is Chevron consolidating brands?

Post by Alpha8472 »

Island Energy bought the refinery and the gas stations. It was Island Energy that decided to rebrand to Texaco. Island Energy wanted to be seen as a more locally owned company and decided to move away from the corporate brand of Chevron. Chevron wanted to get rid of non-core operations.

Havoline was moved from Texaco to Chevron back in 2011. They wanted to consolidate brands under Chevron. It has taken a long time.
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